Big league baseball would seem to have been a hard sell in 1942.World War II was not going well for the United States in thePacific and not much better in Europe. Moreover, the country wasin drastically short supply of ships, planes, submarines, torpedoes,and other war materials, and Uncle Sam needed men, millions ofthem, including those from twenty-one through thirty-five years ofage who had been ordered to register for the draft, the age range ofmost big league baseball players.<p>But after a “green light” from President Roosevelt, major leaguebaseball played on in 1942 as it would throughout the war. It turnedout to be an extraordinary season, too, spiced by a brash, young, andswift St. Louis Cardinal team that stunned the baseball world bywinning the World Series. The 1942 season would be overshadowedby war, though, with many people wondering whether it wasreally all right for four hundred seemingly healthy and athletic mento play a child's game and earn far more money than the thousandsof young Americans whose lives were at risk as they fought theGermans and Japanese abroad. </p><p>In <em>Season of '42</em>, veteran sportswriter Jack Cavanaugh takes a lookat this historic baseball season, how it was shaped and affected bythe war and what, ultimately, it meant to America.</p>